Lower Manhattan will receive $176 million in funds for flood protection, the New York Times reports. While the specifics of what this protection entails has not yet been decided, the funds, awarded to city by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, will cover the shoreline stretching from Montgomery Street on the Lower East Side to the tip of Battery Park City.
The funds were awarded as part of a National Disaster Resilience Competition launched by the HUD. The competition provides a total $1 billion in funds to areas across the country that were declared a part of a major disaster by the President in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Last summer, HUD announced 40 finalists - mostly cities and states - to compete for the funds. Of the total fund, $181 million was set aside for projects in New York and New Jersey. It has now been revealed that New York will walk away with $176 million of that fund.
"Today's news that Lower Manhattan is to receive $176 million in federal funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development's National Disaster Resiliency Competition is a significant step toward completing comprehensive resiliency measures around Lower Manhattan to the north end of Battery Park City," New York State Senator, Daniel Squadron, who represents the affected areas in Lower Manhattan, said in a press release. "These funds, together with the nearly $115 million I worked with the city and state to have committed to Lower Manhattan, will allow resiliency efforts to continue south of Montgomery Street, north of which the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project is proceeding."
The federal funds will be a helpful addition to the $100 million set aside by the de Blasio administration last year for the storm proofing efforts as a result of Hurricane Sandy, that devastated the city in 2012.
New additions to the shoreline as a result of the funds could include sea walls, temporary flood walls, and grass berms that will be used as green spaces and publicly-accessible waterfront areas, as per the Times.
This new chunk of funding comes in addition to the $335 million the HUD provided to the city in early 2015, through another competition, Rebuild by Design, protecting the shoreline stretching from East 23rd Street to Montgomery Street. And then of course there's also Bjarke Ingels' Dryline proposal - to transform the Lower East Side shoreline - to look forward to, if the project is approved.
· New York City to Get $176 Million From U.S. for Storm Protections [New York Times]
· NYC Will Spend $100 Million to Stormproof Lower Manhattan [Curbed]
· Plan to Protect Manhattan from Sandy 2.0 Moves Forward [Curbed]
· Exploring How the Dryline Could Transform Manhattan's Coast [Curbed]
Loading comments...